


Likeness

by addyrobin



Category: Utawarerumono | The One Being Sung
Genre: Gen, Mask of Deception - Freeform, Mask of Truth - Freeform, Spoilers for everything tbh, Utawarerumono spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-03 21:26:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12756513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/addyrobin/pseuds/addyrobin
Summary: Ougi has trained too carefully to not notice these small details - the way he walks, the way he speaks, even the way he looks. It's a close match, so close that even he believed it for a moment…but he knows Oshtor, and he's known Oshtor for a very long time. But the man who now stands before them...





	Likeness

**Author's Note:**

> Super duper MASSIVE spoilers for Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth on the whole, turn back now if you haven't finished the games and still plan to.
> 
> Hi! This fandom (or what exists of it) could really use a fic that's not porn, I think? Nothing against it! But MAN do I love this game and want to talk about the intricacies of these characters with someone. Speaking of which: So much of this is headcanon! I wrote all of this pretty much at midnight! I didn't have a beta! I've played at least 100 hours of this game and I'm still not sure if I'm spelling Jachdwalt right! And as hard as I tried, I probably skipped a few details and couldn't fact check every single thing I wrote - so the 'beleaguered ass' comment might not be real but I'm pretty sure it was something close to that? Either way, hopefully don't read too much into that! (cough also I have a thing for writing niche characters in niche fandoms SO)
> 
> Anyhow. I still love these games. If anyone at all reads this, I hope you enjoy!

Something isn't right.

Ougi jolts ever so slightly as he catches sight of Oshtor on the path ahead, his years of discipline betraying him for just a second in the wake of the shock. But he cautiously restrains himself, regarding the impostor standing in Oshtor's place and hearing out his words with as blank an expression as he can manage. And when 'Oshtor' states that Haku is dead, all the pieces fall into place. He can't pin specifics, not precisely, but against Vurai? Yes, he has an idea of what's going on. The loss of Haku would be painful, but ultimately tenable - the loss of Oshtor, however, would create significant and numerous problems that Ougi can't even begin to think through at this stage...he wonders, numbly, what went wrong. Why Oshtor, normally wise enough to hold back and live to see another day, would use the full extent of his Akuruka even knowing the cost. How _Oshtor_ , of all people, could die...

He halts the train of thought, events unfolding before him as he carefully collects his thoughts. Oshtor is dead, Kuon is leaving, and Haku is now living a lie that Ougi can sense he was tasked with upholding by Oshtor's final words. This isn't the time to be inactive. He's already lost his composure once - he knows, if he speaks, it may reveal too much. And Ougi can't afford another mistake, no matter how small - not with Oshtor gone. So instead, he tasks himself with silently guiding everyone into the walls of Ennakamuy, forcing them to move even with the weight of what they've just been told.

It's what Oshtor would have wanted, after all.

He doesn't give himself time to think about it until he's in total solitude, alone on a rooftop in the dead of night and gazing up at the moon. There's a part of him that wishes, vaguely, that he could be more like his sister at a moment like this - simple and oblivious, deceived by Haku's act so that he could mourn in blissful ignorance, perhaps with a drink. But…

Ougi has trained too carefully to not notice these small details - the way he walks, the way he speaks, even the way he looks. It's a close match, so close that even _he_ believed it for a moment…but he knows Oshtor, and he's known Oshtor for a very long time. Long enough to have seen him leave for and return from countless battles, to have been allowed a secret entrance into his chambers, to have gained his trust implicitly. Ougi knows that it's not just Haku that Oshtor's trusted with this secret…no, Oshtor would surely have known that Ougi would recognize the change. Their closeness aside, he would be a poor spy indeed if he could not spot a fake Oshtor.

But even now, alone in the moonlight with no one to hear, words fail him. Silence has always been his primary mode of operation - why would that change in mourning? No…he cannot afford a long farewell, nor would Oshtor have wanted one. It's clear even without a direct order that he has a task to perform, and he will see it done.

Gaze turning to the moon, he dedicates a moment of silence to Oshtor.

How like him.

* * *

The days pass quickly, with war ever at their backs. No longer can they afford the moments of peace they once had, leisurely days and instances of levity lost to the cold grasp of time and Oshtor's-- no, _Haku's_ passing. Even in thought he corrects himself, leaving no room for error even in his memory. And to this Oshtor's credit, he performs his duties as diligently as ever, even as Ougi watches him silently struggle with the weight of it all. In moments when he believes himself alone, Oshtor is somewhat careless with his preserving his identity, though Ougi cannot blame him for it. He curses to himself, mutters things under his breath that the Oshtor he knows would never normally say, follows through with nervous tics that he restrains himself from performing when in public. His façade is not perfect, but it's commendable that Oshtor is trying so tirelessly to uphold it...and in the wake of the loss, Ougi finds himself slipping here and there - wanting to believe, despite knowing the truth, that Oshtor never left them. It gets under his skin in a way that makes him uncomfortable, that even _he_ would be willing to deceive himself in this manner...

He regrets the day he slips for an instant, sneaking out from the shadows to remark on a comment that Oshtor makes about his 'beleaguered ass' - forgetting for a moment that these jests are no longer welcome with this Oshtor. He had only meant it as a way to lighten his mood, so used to the days when he could tease the other man freely, but never again does he catch Oshtor truly make a major error in his performance.

He holds his tongue ever after, however, remembering that his place is in the shadows. Perhaps Oshtor would have joked with him in the past, agreed that the comment would be better attributed to Ukon…

But this is no longer the past, and they can only move forward.

At least he's always been fairly good at that. Ever his sister's caretaker, speed has always been of the utmost importance when doing damage control on her various escapades - and even in the wake of Haku's passing he cannot afford to let his attention stray far from her. She is growing lately, especially after their battle with Tokifusa - truly becoming the good woman she wants to be. In their brief meeting, Genho comments on his lack of change compared to her, but...the circumstances surrounding Oshtor makes him feel all the more protective of her, and even as his visage remains calm there's turmoil in his heart. The fear that he might lose Nosuri, that he will turn his back for only a moment just as he did with Oshtor, and…

He does not dwell on it, however. He cannot. War keeps him ever in motion and does not afford him much time to fixate on these thoughts, something for which he admits he's thankful. Day after day, battle after battle, Ougi remains blessedly occupied - enough that he is able to keep his darker musings at bay. He watches over his sister, fulfills his duties in darkness…and if someone happens to notice that Oshtor has fallen asleep at his desk and places a blanket over his shoulders to keep him warm, he's none the wiser. He most certainly doesn't feel a pang of sorrow at this Oshtor's unguarded and worn out expression in his slumber. Nor does he notice, as his fingers brush over the other man's shoulders, how differently they feel to touch.

And if he feels a fierce, quiet drive to protect this man with his life and support him regardless of Oshtor's will…of course he does not notice that, either. Just as a lie is all that holds up Oshtor's integrity, so too will these lies hold his mourning, disoriented heart in place until the time is right to dwell upon them.

…

…sadly, as it turns out, the right time never comes. Even when the war ends, the Tatari consume the capital, the sun falls to the Earth, and Yamato nearly freezes over before they manage to correct it. The end of the world threatens to swallow him, and everyone, up in little more than a blink of the eye after that, Woshis's dreams nearly crushing them all. Yet impossibly, improbably, they manage to prevent it with hardly more than their combined strength and determination…and with the full extent of Oshtor's power, whose mask finally crumbles to salt as the truth of the situation is revealed to everyone who did not know it before. And as Haku stands before them, saying his farewells, Ougi cannot begin to comprehend the tide of emotions that twists behind his calm, unaffected smile. He holds them in silence, as he has held everything else, until Haku's gaze falls to him. 

"Ougi."

He bows with a flourish, falling to routine when all else fails him. "… Yes. I'm here."

"You have…done well to support me from the shadows until now…" Funny. Ougi had always thought that when he heard Haku's voice again it would be under better circumstances. Maybe over a drink with everyone else, in laughter and tears as they finally gave a proper farewell to Oshtor. Not like this… "You have my thanks."

He knows that now is not the time to be silent, no matter how often he has relied on that tactic in the past. And yet once more, only when he is finally allowed to break from his quiet stance and speak freely does Ougi find that perhaps his silence was not by choice after all.

"True, I managed to support you in most respects…but not, I fear, when you needed it most." He doesn't know how else to convey it all, the things he's seen, the things he's felt. The way he's come to feel about Haku, the way he's grown to both distinguish and confuse him with Oshtor in the time since his passing. If he could only open his mouth and say _anything_ more…but there's not enough time. There would never be enough time in a circumstance like this.

"Hah…I thought as much. You knew who I was from the start." Haku's smile is what does it, the same thing that makes his heart ache in his chest the way it did when he first noted Oshtor's passing. It makes him jolt again, the way he did in those very first moments of silence…

"…I cannot imagine what you're talking about." He can only offer a calm, silent smile - hoping that no one else noticed the very slight tremble in his last words, the nearly concealed bitterness at their 'reunion.' But Haku's silence after the fact is an indicator that _he_ did, if no one else, and Ougi cannot think to speak with that revelation. Once, perhaps only Oshtor would have caught these very slight changes in his tone, but now...

Have they truly grown this close?

"Goodbye." It seems that's the best Haku can do, and Ougi finally finds a true smile at the tender inelegance of it all.

"No emotional farewell for me, then?" He would laugh, but it would be too unlike him.

"From here on, you may do as you please."

That stuns him again, if only for a moment - both because of what's being said, and the way that it's spoken. It…sounds like something Oshtor would have said.

"A fine parting gift. I can see my itinerary is going to be quite packed." He can't help it, slipping back into the gentle, teasing tone that he once used with Ukon for a single instance. It catches him ever so slightly off guard, though he doesn't show it on his face.

"Hah…how like you."

He recalls a moment, at the very beginning of all of this, when he had the very same thought. "…perhaps so."

There's nothing more to be said, and Ougi watches in silence - as he ever has - as Haku crumbles to salt with a smile on his face. There is nothing to do but watch, and Ougi turns his eyes to the sky as the very last pieces of the man he's come to trust more than any other vanish in the wind.

* * *

 

Time, of course, has a way of passing whether one desires it or not. Together they are able to hold off Denebokshiri on Earth for another day, and together they begin to rebuild. Finally, a conversation is had with everyone - one that concerns both Oshtor and Haku - and Ougi is finally able to mourn as he was never able to before. He finds support in Nosuri and the others as things happen, a surprising but not unwelcome turn of events. Kiwru and Jachdwalt have both become dear friends of a kind he's never quite known outside of Oshtor, and they grant him an odd sort of license to finally stray somewhat from his sister's side...it's a strange sort of freedom that he's never thought of taking before, but now he has it. And as the world returns to a more or less normal state at long last, Ougi does find that things have finally slowed down somewhat…

So if, in his newly found free time, he works with Kiwru and Jachdwalt to create a proper gravesite for Haku and Oshtor…well, he's just doing as he pleases. That might make Oshtor laugh, and perhaps Haku would make a sarcastic quip about it.

But when all is said and done, and the work is finished…

Ougi finds that his silence as he stands before their graves finally, _finally_ feels voluntary.

How like him, indeed.

 


End file.
